Syed Saddiq

Syed Saddiq bin Syed Abdul Rahman (Jawi: سيد صادق بن سيد عبدالرحمن; born 6 December 1992) is a Malaysian politician who has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Muar since May 2018. A founder and member of Malaysian United Democratic Alliance, he is the youngest federal minister in the country serving as the Minister of Youth and Sports in the Pakatan Harapan (PH) administration from July 2018 until the collapse of the administration in February 2020. At 33, Saddiq is presently the third youngest MP.

Born in Johor, Saddiq is a founding member of the Malaysian United Democratic Alliance (MUDA) and served as its first president from September 2020 until November 2023. He was also a founding member of the Malaysian United Indigenous Party (BERSATU), a former component party of the PH coalition and served as first youth chief of BERSATU from the founding in September 2016 to his removal from the party in May 2020. Although he is presently the sole MUDA MP, his conviction and sentencing to imprisonment exceeds 1 year, which means he is liable for automatic disqualification as an MP for Muar.

In 2021, Saddiq was charged with several counts of corruption, including criminal breach of trust, misappropriation of funds, and money laundering. On 28 October 2022, he was ordered by the High Court to enter his defence after the prosecution showed that there was enough evidence against him to prove that he probably committed the crime. In 2023, he was found guilty of criminal breach of trust and money laundering. On 9 November the same year, Saddiq was convicted by the High Court of all the corruption charges, sentenced to 7 years' imprisonment, a RM 10 million fine and two strokes of the cane. He immediately resigned as the MUDA president following his conviction and was replaced by his deputy, Amira Aisya Abdul Aziz as the acting president. Prior to the conviction, Saddiq withdrew his support for Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim and his government after Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi had been granted discharge not amounting to acquittal (DNAA) for his court charges.

Since 2023, he became an opposition MP that actively criticised, protested and campaigned against the unequal government financial allocations to the MPs across the political divide, with the opposition MPs being denied the allocations despite him having personally met with the government representative Deputy Prime Minister Fadillah Yusof for negotiations of giving allocations to opposition MPs for a few times, while supporting and advocating for reforming the pension scheme for cabinet ministers, MPs and the legislative assembly members.